The Comprehensive Equalities Scheme (CES) is Lewisham Council’s equality policy and serves essentially two purposes:
1. To set out Lewisham’s overall commitment to equality and diversity in one central document. The CES contains:
- our equality and diversity policy
- our approach to equalities in Lewisham
- how we will manage, plan and include equality and diversity policy within the day to day work of the Council.
2. To act as the ‘umbrella’ document for both our statutory and non-statutory equality schemes. The CES contains:
- our statutory equality schemes in relation to race, disability and gender
- our non-statutory (draft) schemes in relation to sexual orientation, religion/belief and age.
This is a revised version of the Comprehensive Equalities Scheme (CES), first published in 2006.
In revising the CES we have incorporated, for the first time, information, issues and potential areas for action in relation to sexual orientation, age and religion/belief. There is no legal requirement yet to develop ‘schemes’ in these areas, but broadening our approach to all six recognised equality strands illustrates our commitment to ensuring equality for all, while also putting us in a good position to respond to potential changes in national equalities legislation.
We have revised and updated the component statutory schemes, so that they will all now run to the same timescale (2008 – 2011), with their action plans structured around a consistent framework (based on the priority area of the Equality Standard for Local Government). While included under the umbrella of the CES, each individual scheme can also still be viewed in its own right.
In relation to the action plans, each of our individual schemes frames the key issues, and outlines the action required, in relation to ‘Consultation, Community Development and Scrutiny’ and ‘Service Delivery and Customer Care’. As part of our comprehensive approach we have developed actions in relation to ‘Leadership and Corporate Commitment’ and ‘Employment and Training’ to cover all six equality strands (therefore encompassing both our statutory and non-statutory schemes).
The Comprehensive Equality Scheme highlights and fulfils our legal responsibilities and requirements for race, gender and disability and is also consistent with the responsibilities that public agencies have under the Human Rights Act. The scheme was approved by the Mayor and Cabinet 30th April 2008.
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